RAIN
It is raining and will be for the next few days, so it's time to come out of the garden and write about it instead. All my new roses arrived and I did find a spot for each of them. Time will tell how crowded they become. I have spent the last week weeding, mulching and mowing. My gravel paths were loaded with weeds, since we have had a lot more rain this year than in previous years. It was difficult to distinguish bulbs from grass in my bottom driveway garden, so that had to be cleared before the flowers come. I pruned the plumbago, which has become huge, but is covering the septic, so that's OK. My Geraldton Wax plant died after about 4 years. Not sure how long they live, but it sure wasn't impressed with all our summer rain. I replaced it with a weeping Callistemon.
I still have loads more garden beds to weed, tidy and mulch before the heat arrives. Luckily, or maybe not, we lost 3 large Cypress pine trees and had them cut down and mulched a few months ago, and as well as the large Melaleuca tree which suffered the same fate last year, they have given me 2 huge piles of mulch which is breaking down nicedly. I also got to buy 3 replacement trees - always a plus - and I chose Lilly pillys, Acmena smithii.
I now need to start pruning my roses. It takes quite a while to prune 150 bushes and time is running short.
The navel oranges have been huge and sweet this year and have so far provided us with 2 months worth of juice, about 10 litres. However, because I pruned 2 of the trees to allow more light and air to get in, the yield has not been as high this year. We will probably run out of Navels before the Valencias are ready to squeeze.
Speaking of citrus, I bought 4 concrete 45cm pots at a pre-garage sale for $7 each - bargain. I decided to put a small citrus tree in each. Now I have a Meyer lemon, a Lemonade, a Blood Orange and a Mandarin as well as the Tangelo, Tahitian lime, Dwarf Lotsa Lemons and 2 Kaffir Limes that I already had. If they get too big I can always plant them out.